UMSON CNL Fall 2013 Applicants

U.S.A. Maryland

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  • by smoup
    Specializes in psych/dementia.

You are reading page 7 of UMSON CNL Fall 2013 Applicants

smoup

366 Posts

Specializes in psych/dementia.
Classes haven't even begun and we got an email about the first test.... ::gulp::

That we HAVE to get a 100% on for fail the class. No pressure. . . . .

orterpfan

7 Posts

Has anyone gotten their financial aid package yet?

biotonursing

22 Posts

Yes, I have. They pretty much don't send anything in the mail, it's all on simsweb.

orterpfan

7 Posts

This is a post from a couple of years ago, but helpful for those who may not have seen.

A week in the life of a first semester CNL student at UMB…[

Monday: My alarm goes off at 5:30 am. I leave my house tocatch the train at 7:00 so that I can be downtown and ready to go when classstarts at 8:00. Monday is health assessment. This class goes through each bodysystem and you learn how to do literally do an assessment to make sure theperson’s body is functioning properly. For example, this past Monday we learnedhow to do an abdominal assessment. The lecture first had a brief review of GIanatomy and physiology, and then you learn how to assess the patient’ssubjective symptoms and the objective findings from the abdominal physical examin order to formulate a nursing diagnosis and a nursing care plan. Healthassessment ends at 11:00 am. For four consecutive weeks toward the beginning ofthe first semester, we also had a communication module on Mondays. This modulemet from 2:00 to 5:00 pm and focused on how to use communication in atherapeutic setting.

Tuesday: My alarm goes off at 6:00 am, I leave my house at7:30, and class meets from 8:30-10:30. Tuesday is intro to professional nursingpractice, otherwise known as fundamentals of nursing, or “fundies” for short.This class teaches you the “meat and potato” nursing skills. You learneverything from medication administration to wound care to patient hygiene tonurse and patient safety to patient mobility. This class literally gives youall of the basic skills that nurses use every day. Both fundies and healthassessment have a clinical simulation lab (CSL) components built into thecourse (more on this later). Tuesday afternoon I take context of healthcaredelivery and intro to the CNL role from 11:00-2:00. This is more of a theoryclass and you learn about some key issues such as legal, ethical and economicalissues that effect nursing practice today. You also learn a little about thehistory of nursing in this class as well.

This semester you are off either Wednesday or Thursday,depending on the CSL lab group you are in. I decided to take Wednesday offbecause it’s a nice way to break up the week.

Thursday: I have both fundies and health assessment CSL onThursday. In the morning I have fundies lab from 9:30-11:30 and in theafternoon I have health assessment lab from 12:30-2:30. I love CSL because itactually allows you to put all of the didactic information you have learned into practice. If you go to one of the information sessions, they might give youa tour of the CSLs. They are set up just like any hospital, with real hospitalbeds, monitors, etc. Even the mannequins that we practice on are very similarto a real patient. Some of the more expensive ones even have actual physiologicfunctions and vital signs that you can program. For example, you can listen toabnormal heart murmurs or abnormal lung sounds with your stethoscope.

Friday: One word: PATHOPHARMOCOLGY! This is probably one ofyour hardest classes first semester. It starts at 8:30 am and ends at 3:00 pmwith a break for lunch between 11:00 am and 12:30 pm. This is where all of yourA & P and microbiology comes into play. Again this class takes a systemsapproach. You learn about the pathophysiology and disease processes that canoccur in each system and then learn which drugs are used to ameliorate theseproblems. Since this class meets for 5 hours each week, you cover an incredibleamount of information in a very short amount of time.

As far as assignments go, you have your traditional testsand quizzes. Context of healthcare delivery has 2 papers (I have only done oneso far), pathopharmacology has a 10 page case study, and fundies has a CNLleadership paper at the end of the semester. I am in the 21 month extendedtrack so I am not taking systems in health population this semester. The 16monthers are taking this an online course and they have a few papers for thatas well.

Then there is something called validation. This is how youare tested on all of your skills in CSL. Basically you are handed a scenarioinstructing you to perform a variety of nursing tasks you have been practicing.While you are performing your scenario, you are being videotaped. Then, yourinstructor watches back the video and grades you on your performance. This canbe an incredibly stressful type of testing situation if you are not adequatelyprepared. That is why you spend a lot of your free time during the course ofthe first semester in open lab. The few hours you have to practice your skillsduring your scheduled lab session is not nearly enough time to properly masterall of these skills. This is why open lab is a necessity. I can’t stress thispoint enough.

Lastly, I want to openly state that you have to be extremelycommitted in order to do well in this program. This program places highimportance on critical thinking, integration of information, and independentlearning. Besides for the routine assignments, you spend a lot of time readingthe textbooks and applying the didactic theory to real world nursing practice.Evidence based practice is a concept that will be continually used throughoutyour nursing career. So you can’t just know how to do something, you have toknow WHY you are doing something and how it will effect your patient in boththe short and long term.

violets13

16 Posts

Specializes in CNA, PCT.

Any of you interested in meeting up before the semester starts?

smoup

366 Posts

Specializes in psych/dementia.

I'd be up for a meet up this summer. My schedule is pretty open.

CR109

9 Posts

I'd love to meet up this summer! I know summer weekends tend to fill up quickly with vacations and gatherings, would a weekday evening work? What would be a good time/place for you?

biotonursing

22 Posts

Weekday happy hour would work great for me, I'm on campus for work usually until 4 or 4:30. Camden pub and alewife are close to campus. The pub is much closer, I go there a lot but I'll warn you, it's a little bit of a dive bar.

violets13

16 Posts

Specializes in CNA, PCT.

Cool! Do you guys have emaill and/or facebook? I could put a group of names together... would be easier to set something up that way. My email is [email protected] free to email me.

violets13

16 Posts

Specializes in CNA, PCT.

Hey guys! I successfully a created a group on facebook for our CNL class. Please join so we can all collaborate for the upcoming semseter!

facebook.com/groups/486679111408081/members/

I think it will be a great outlet for all the people in our class to communicate.

daw39

14 Posts

Hello, anyone else on this thread applying to Spring 2014 CNL program? For anyone already in or finished the program, I would so greatly appreciate any insight given on the interview questions or writing prompt, I have my interview coming up and am a nervous wreck! Thank you! Feel free to message me!

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